A PERSPECTIVE ON A CHILD'S DEATH

An article in the July 7 Southeast Missourian has prompted me to write. I am the mother of two young children. I work and got to college part-time. It's not very often that I take the time to sit down, eat breakfast and read the morning paper. On July 7 I did.

While reading about the trials and tribulations of a local club, Regina's House of Dolls, with little interest, my eye wandered down to the next article. The attention-grabbing headline read: "Woman pleads before trial in tot's death begins." Pleads? Pleads for what? What child? What death? I had no recollection of this tragedy. Did it occur in Cape Girardeau? When? How? Why? I read further for more information.

All of my questions were answered by reading the article. Well, that's not exactly so. I had the facts. The dead child's name was Bobby J. Miller. Bobby died on Nov. 2, 1994, at the age of 3. Bobby's mother has pleaded guilty to endangering his welfare. She was accused of knowingly failing to seek medical attention for Bobby. Bobby's mother's boyfriend has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the child's death and will serve seven years in prison. (If you have slaughtered a child, maybe it should be called childslaughter or, perhaps, babyslaughter.) And, yes, this had occurred in Cape Girardeau.

Now I had the facts straight. However, the article didn't answer my last, and most troubling, question: Why? Why would a mother allow her son to die at the hands of an adult? Why would she ignore his need for medical treatment? Is there a plausible answer to either of these questions?

I don't have the answers for my own questions. All I have are more questions. Why does our society tolerate this madness? How can we read articles about dead toddlers and finish eating our breakfast? Who can help? What needs to be done? Were is it going to end? And, finally, when is it going to end?

I do know this: Bobby J. Miller (and all the other Bobbys who have died at adult hands) aren't serving a few years. They are serving eternity. Unlike Bobby's mother, they don't have the option to plead. I'm sure they pleaded for the madness to stop while they were being beaten to death. But they will plead no more.

The next time I see and article on Regina's House of Dolls, I think I will just skip it. I don't care if women dance there or anywhere. The dancers are adults. The customers are adults. Adults can make their own choices about employment and leisure-time activities. An inordinate of energy is being spent on this club. Does this make sense? One group of adults is trying to force other adults to stop doing something that is perfectly constitutional. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the same town, a child died because he wasn't big enough to make any choices about his existence. As a society, it might be time to prioritize what we value. Do we want to argue over something as ridiculous as what goes on in a bar, or do we want to spend a little time, energy and funds on child welfare?

As the Regina's House of Dolls saga continues, let's keep this mind: Bobby J. Miller will never dance.

Jane M. Painton is a resident of Jackson.